The Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum holds a significant proportion of material that is unique or rare. Its collections include manuscripts, books, pamphlets, newspapers, photographs, maps, broadsides, and ephemera–a combination of primary and secondary sources that makes the library a rich and productive location for research and discovery. Its scope is global and nearly encyclopedic, and its holdings reflect the museum’s collections of art in all media and across all curatorial departments, on top of its own traditional areas of strength in subjects such as Essex County history.